Adapted from an image (public domain), via Wikimedia Commons.
1885–1966
George de Hevesy
Announced hafnium in 1923.
Element
72HfHafnium
1923
The gap below zirconium in the table was filled in 1923, when Dirk Coster and George de Hevesy, at Niels Bohr's institute in Copenhagen, found element 72 in zirconium ores by its X-ray spectrum. They named it hafnium, after Hafnia, the Latin name for Copenhagen.
Keep exploring
Where the dates and stories on this page come from; each event on the timeline links to its own source.
- George de HevesyEncyclopaedia Britannica
- HafniumRoyal Society of Chemistry
- George de HevesyWikipedia